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I'm not personally experienced with your particular machine, so I don't know what is involved.

You will probably get the back off and find that there is a second line of defence................my tip for all lappies is get a sheet of paper and some adhesive tape. When you take out screws stick them to the paper and write down where they come from

Mind you, I don't think that Sony booby trap their laptops like the scumbags at Apple

I didn't read every reply to this, but I wanted to pop in and stress a few things:

First off; I'm not sure exactly what the screen would look like in Windows Vista because I don't own a copy. One of my Wife's Computers came with it, but it didn't last very long because we weren't into it.

But, in Windows XP, and Windows 7, basically, very soon after you got the Laptop, if you got it fresh ( as in you bought it, and turned it on for the first time, and second and so on, or it came with a fresh installation) you would see a little pop up that basically says something along the lines of "You should create Restore CDs" or a DVD, or something to that effect.

I'm personally not sure why they all started to do this, because about 10 years ago, any Computer you bought from anywhere, would come with CDs in it, and they were sometimes a copy of Windows made for whatever machine you have (My Mom had a Dell that came with a Windows 95 install CD, AND a Windows 98 CD for example, and it also came with CDs for all the software the machine came with) And then, I bought a Compaq Presario years ago after I started college because I had to have a Windows machines for school, and it's a pretty normal PC; Compaq Presario 6000, AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (The one you can cook on if vented right) and all the usual in hardware, but, it came with almost nothing in terms of CDs, and Windows XP Home Edition.

Now, I found it odd that I wasn't seeing any XP install CD, but after booting up, and using the machine for a little while, a little pop up balloon showed up on my screen saying I needed to make Restore CDs....

The first, second, and other machines I bought would either be like my Mom's with Windows Installation CDs, or it would come like my HP Pavilion did; My HP Pavilion is one of the best Computers I ever bought; It was my first purchased machine, and came pre-installed with Windows 98, and it had Restore CDs. Restore CDs aren't a normal copy of Windows, but instead, it was 3 CD-ROMs, and when you booted from the first one, it would come up with an option list that I could select from, and then I could either just restore some system files, and not format or erase anything, or, I could repair things, or, I could do what it called something like a Factory Restore.

The Factory Restore Option, basically did a complete format and reinstall of Windows 98, erasing, and then installing Windows, then installing all the software it came with all at once.

The nice thing about the Restore CDs was that all I needed was those 3 CDs and I could make the Computer exactly the way it was the day I bought it, without having to fiddle around. My Mom's machine I brought up, you'd reinstall Windows, but then have to have every CD it came with handy, and pop them in playing disc jockey for a while.

They both have their ups and downs, but the fact that this XP machine was telling me to make them myself I didn't like at all. And I think this is what happened with you, as the other replies have stated.

I don't know about your experience level, but it's always a good idea to make sure that any machine you buy, you make sure you either have Restore CDs, or some way of reinstalling the OS from CD or DVD, because as you've now seen; Those Partitions, though nice, and a time saver, don't always work, and they can be corrupted.

One thing I do personally to sort of make sure I have everything ready if I have to do this (And trust me I go through OSs like candy corn on Halloween sometimes) is, I bought multiple little CD cases, and I keep one for the machines I have, this way I've got all the stuff I need to wipe a machine in one shot, all in one thing.

you don't have to buy anything expensive; Most Dollar stores keep these things in stock all the time, and since you only need a few, you can save money on them as well.

I'd recommend doing this though, as you'll save yourself quite a bit of head aches.

For my Laptop, I built a sort of kit that has all the CDs and DVDs I need to "press the reset" on it, and now instead of hunting down the stupid driver CD they never seem to add to the OS CD with restore CDs, I can simply grab a hand full of CDs, sit down, and just pop the basics in.

So I feel for you in having this issue, I've had it happen before too. It's one reason I now run an FTP Server; If you have an old or spare Computer you aren't using, this is another way to save a lot of time too:

I took my HP which is VERY dated now (384 MBs of RAM, and a Pentium 3 @ 733 MHz, which is WAY more than required by the way) and I installed Slackware 12.0 on it, and then I set up VSFTPd on it, made a user account "SlackFTP" and put a password on it so I don't need anonymous, and then, I slapped in a cheap HD as a second storage option, and I made a COMPLETE back up of all my most important Data.

After doing so, I then uploaded ALL of my Music collection, then movies, and other videos, and every other thing I deemed neccesarry; I now have everything from music, movies, and videos, to text files and even old DooM saved games, all of which I can take a freshly installed OS, such as Windows XP for example, and download everything I need. Some of the stuff really important I put on one of our external USB disks too, and on my thumb drives, and after having multiple back ups, I grabbed drivers I might need too.

The reason you couldn't get online and so on, was because Windows couldn't see your hardware, so it was using basic drivers just to get something going. I know how much of a PITA it is to boot up and have like 600 X 800 on the display, and you can't do anything about it, because Windows can't see the video card properly, or doesn't have the right driver.

So I backed those up too on my Server, and now, I can go from installing an OS, to having all my Data, in less than 2 hours, where before, it would take all day.

So yea, if you happen to have a Computer you aren't currently using, or, you find an old 486 or Pentium, or a Pentium II Computer you find for sale or even free, grab it! A 486 is enough to set up a simple Server, though Disk Space is probably going to be an issue, but even a little Pentium II that you find for 30 dollars somewhere, you can hook up an extra Hard Drive to it, to maximize space, and then install Slackware or FreeBSD on it, and set up an FTP Server, and then you can upload your back ups to it. And setting up an FTP Server, is actually VERY simple.

I recommend for a beginner that you use either VSFTPd, or PureFTPd, as both of those are very easy to use, very easy to set up, fast, stable, and even if you don't know how they work or don't have any experience with them, the whole set up, is editing a single text file to tell it to only allow local log ins, and then setting up an account like "mybackup" or something, and then allowing uploads of course. You save the file, start it up, and log in to make sure it's working (If you DO go this route and have any trouble, just reply here, I wrote a tutorial on how to do this a long time ago, and, of course, since the configuration is a simple text file, you could even copy and paste it, or send it to me, and I could help you set it up and get you going).

After that, you'd ALWAYS have the Drivers you need for Video, but for the NIC, or however you get online, I'd personally recommend you make a CD and burn those to it so that you can be sure you can get online at the least.

Thank you all ... I gave it to a computer store to repair for me ... they said the HDD was gone and charged me 100$ for 500G HDD and 35 for labor ...
Then I get my laptop, take it home and see the front edge is a little bit broken .. Also I tried to use my recovery disks to install a new windows and finally it shuts down and when I turn it on again, the screen is gone! I mean the lappy is on but with NO screen .. so I return it and now I get a call saying that the 4G Ram was dead as well and they replaced it and it should be fine ...
I don't know if it's fair to ask for damage compensation for the broken edge .. I say it has happened here, they guy sort of denied it I asked them to look around maybe they can find the piece but she said they couldn't find it ...
I guess if they don't charge me for the RAM I will forget about the broken part

You remember Nihil about its temperature problem? It used to happen when I was in "Speed" mode.. since then I started using the Stamnia mode all the time .. so this is one problem of this laptop ..
Now it has a tiny broken edge as well ...
HDD is replaced as well ...

I have a question: if it didn't have that penny size broken edge (next to the screw), how much would you pay for it? (3 years old)
And now how much do you think it's worth? I'm just curious
Thank you
PS. This is my laptop:http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony...-33634228.html

I would have tried reseating the memory and video card first, as I don't believe that TWO 2GB memory sticks failed at the same time.

If a component is not firmly seated it can run for a while until the tiniest vibration takes it over the edge.

I am not really the person to talk about prices and values as I live in sticksville UK. Here people would look for a new 15.6" laptop in the range of £250~£350(GBP).

I have one myself, it is a Compaq CQ61US (a "grey" import from the States).

I guess that the battery will last around 90 minutes, and the same seems to be true of my friends' Toshiba and Acer machines. They are better described as "portable desktops" IMO, which is what most people seem to want.

What you have is what I would describe as a "road warrior's" laptop, as it promised 6 hours uptime when new. It is a pretty powerful piece of kit with 4GB of DDR3, a 7,200rpm HDD and a discrete video card as well as onboard video.

I guess that would suit some business people and students in particular? Otherwise we are just looking for "portable" from room to room; rather than truly "mobile" computing.

When I am on the move I use an ASUS netbook that will go for at least 3.5 hours on battery power, has a 10.1" screen and only weighs 2lbs 2oz.

Of course, your machine is 3 years old, and there has been an enormous upsurge in sub-PC devices like fondleslabs and intelligent 4G telephones?.........it is quite heavy to lug around?

I actually have an IBM ThinkPad that is somewhat similar, albeit from a much more previous generation. It is as heavy as Hell, has a dockable base attachment with spare battery and HDD.............. PIII/533MHz processor, 1GB RAM and runs Windows XP. I think that it is a 160GB PATA drive.

The guy sat on it, and he had no picture anymore...........so I kindly gave him £10 for "parts" Got the IBM carrying case and all the cables and connectors as well .............."as seen" I couldn't tell the extent of the damage so I didn't really know what I was getting.

I was given my Toshiba 486/75MHz................ It is my Windows 95 support machine, and runs it quite well on 32MB of RAM.

Like I said, I would have no real use for your machine, so it would be of no great value to me. A student would find it useful though, as modern machines with similar characteristics are expensive.

I would have tried reseating the memory and video card first, as I don't believe that TWO 2GB memory sticks failed at the same time.

You were right actually. When I went there to get the lappy, he turned it on but the same problem of black screen (or no screen at all) happened again. So he said "yesterday it worked fine..I even watched a movie in it but it's because of the RAM memories...sometimes they work sometimes not" then he removed the two memories and just put one of them back and the Vista welcome window showed up but only that and it didn't go any further like there was something wrong with the Windows!!! Then he puts both the memories back but again there is NO screen ... he suggested to install Win7 to solve the problem for 50$ but I didn't accept ... he was kind of playing around with it for like half an hour but couldn't make it work so finally I asked him to remove the HDD and refund the price and give me the lappy back (I let him keep 25$ for the diagnostics!)
I guess I'm gonna sell this lappy on Kijiji or eBay or something and buy a new one